Some vegetables can be more than food In addition to providing nutritious healthy food, veggies can provide other things to you. Some people like to try different things and after a few years of gardening, there are always more options to try. One gardening option is giant vegetables. This is just a fascinating speciality within the gardening “family”. Producing these…
Looking Forward We are almost over the ‘hump’ of the winter as far as the gardening world goes. It may not seem like it now, but soon the crisp crunch of snow will give way to the soft earth under foot and a new season of those delicious fresh veggies. By now, I expect most people have received some seed…
January 1, 2020
Looking Forward We don’t get a lot of nice sunny days in January as they are very rare. When we do get one, I love to be out under the deep blue sky and feel the sun reflecting off the white snow as it really lifts me up. It helps me to spend more time out of doors, getting a…
October 1, 2019
Nature’s force in our gardens It never ceases to amaze me the immense power of the forces of nature. Here in PEI and eastern Canada we are fortunate to avoid extremes of nature: tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tsunamis, severe winter cold, and even hurricanes are generally absent. It is hard to imagine that tropical storm Dorian was moderate as far…
September 1, 2019
Preserving your fall crops One of the really enjoyable parts of having a garden for me is preserving all of the fruits and veggies. September is a month of ample harvest so preserving is an option to handle all the extras. There is no smell quite like the tangy spicy aroma of a pot of fresh pickles simmering on a…
June 1, 2019
The resilience of a garden It never ceases to amaze me how our gardens work and deal with the tremendous variability in weather. Yes, we had a lot of cool weather and rain this spring, but the weather changes and things start to grow and catch up. It happens every time, without exception. June 10th is the historical frost-free date…
November 1, 2018
Sunset on this Season Well folks, with November here, the sun is setting on this gardening season. I expect many of you have your garden all cleaned up. You may wish to cultivate the garden now, especially if you have applied some limestone and/or manure. This does increase the chances of wind erosion so you could spread straw on your…
May 1, 2018
Finding the right garden spot and starting your planting Ok, we’re getting into the warm weather at last. Ahhh, doesn’t it feel just fabulous? Now we can start to really see where our work is going outdoors. In a future article I will get into long term planning, but for now let’s start with gardening goals for this year. A…
March 31, 2018
Using cold frames to start early in the spring Producing fresh vegetables early in spring is possible and it does not take a lot of work or expense. Some garden vegetables that can be grown in a cold frame include lettuce, radish, spinach, onions, greens, and others. Oh yes, and lamb’s quarters also grow well if those appeal to you…
March 1, 2018
An Island guide to growing on PEI Don’t you just love looking out of your window and feeling the warmth and intensity of the March sun? You can close your eyes and imagine it’s July again. When you open your eyes and look outside, it may still look like winter but spring is closer than you think. Typically PEI has…
